Members of the trefoil family are characterized by having at least one copy of the trefoil motif, a 40-amino acid domain that contains three conserved disulfides. They are stable secretory proteins expressed in gastrointestinal mucosa. Their functions are not defined, but they may protect the mucosa from insults, stabilize the mucus layer and affect healing of the epithelium. The encoded protein inhibits gastric acid secretion. This gene and two other related trefoil family member genes are found in a cluster on chromosome 21. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008].
Asaka, Nakajima, Momose, Miyamoto, Uehara, Ota: "Trefoil factor family 2 protein: a potential immunohistochemical marker for aiding diagnosis of lobular endocervical glandular hyperplasia and gastric-type adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix." in: Virchows Archiv : an international journal of pathology, Vol. 474, Issue 1, pp. 79-86, (2019) (PubMed).